Philippians 2:10 says that every knee “should” bow. I have misquoted that several times and I have heard others do the same, by saying that every knee “will” bow. What, in your understanding, is the text teaching?<\/p>\n\t
It is rendered “will bow” in the NASB, but reading my Greek books it looks like “should bow” is the better translation as the verb is in the subjunctive mood (expressing a probability or possibility).<\/p>\n
Interestingly, this is a quote of Isaiah 45:23, which is also quoted in Romans 14:11, “For it is written: “As I live, says the LORD, Every knee shall bow to Me, and every tongue shall confess to God” <\/em>” Here every translation uses “will” or “shall.” In Romans 14:11, the verb is in the indicative mood (expressing certainty).<\/p>\n The difference is that In Romans 14:11, the passage is in the context of brethren standing before the throne. In Philippians 2:10, the context is all the world standing before the throne.<\/p>\n What may be influencing the translation of Philippians 2:10 is the verb “confess” in Philippians 2:11. Some texts have this verb in the subjunctive mood, but there are a good number of texts with it in the indicative mood (the difference is a single letter). The NASB picked “will” for both bow and confess. The NKJV picked “should for both verbs. Then NIV picked “should” for bow and avoided either for “confess.”<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Question: Philippians 2:10 says that every knee “should” bow. I have misquoted that several times and I have heard others do the same, by saying that every knee “will” bow. What, in your understanding, is the text teaching? Answer: It is rendered “will bow” in the NASB, but reading my Greek books it looks like…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[926,190],"class_list":["post-33798","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-philippians","tag-translation"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":61002,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/where-are-the-atheists\/","url_meta":{"origin":33798,"position":0},"title":"Where Are the Atheists?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 29, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"by Billy Norris via\u00a0Gospel Guide; Nov. 1995; Vol. 27, No. 10. 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